Let it snow!

For those of you not living in the beautiful Midwest (riiiiight), you might not know that we've been getting all sorts of snowy awesomeness already this year. Last night we got something like 9 or 10" of powdery goodness, on top of the decent stash of snow that had fallen in the past 2 weeks. And I LOVE IT!

What does this mean for my training these days? Well, it means that there hasn't been much to speak of. Hey, I'm just being honest here people. I've been out playing in the snow, and recovering from my playing in the snow, as much as possible. Which, I might add, my coach does consider cross training, so I'm not being a complete bum... To make matters worse, my running buddy totally feeds my snow playing obsession by willingly chauffeuring me to the hill whenever we go.

Last week was my first time back on the board since last season, and it was incredible. It was like I'd never taken a summer break. The snow was awesome and I looked good! Then Wednesday night we ventured out in the frigid temperatures to find that the snow was super icy and it turned out to be not so much fun. Especially un-fun when I decided to, while doing nothing even remotely impressive or cool, go head first into the ice and then flat on to my back on the sheet of ice. THWAP! I went down hard. There are bruises on parts of my body I didn't know even came into contact with anything. I laid there gasping for air my head spinning for sometime. Thank goodness for helmets or I don't know that I would've gotten up. Once I managed to successfully get air into my lungs I was up and moving again, confirming that nothing was dysfunctionally broken, but boy was I hurting.

So Thursday.... The smart person would opt to lay low and recover, right? Key word, smart. I apparently do not fall into that category. So while my rib cage was searingly painful with every breathe, and I still was unable to consistently focus my eyes, I made plans with the running buddy to head back to the hill. My coworker Geoff, cycling extraordinaire and voice of reason, told me that at the rate I was going I wasn't going to make it to Ironman 09. This did make me stop and think a little, but seriously, it had been a sunny great afternoon and with the temperatures promising to stay in the upper teens through the evening, how could I say no? Back to the hill we go. I secretly blame the running buddy and his conniving ways. My theory was that there was nothing a fist full of ibuprofen couldn't fix. I was sure to play it on the safe side, no epic crashes to speak of. But just the same, when I got home I was immobile with pain. Little or no sleep was had. Every move and roll I made jiggled my ribs and made me mutter some very unladylike things.

So what am I planning to do tonight? Head out to the hill of course!! Did you miss the part at the beginning where I said we just got another like 10" of powder??

Rest is for the weary!

And I swear, Scout's Honor, that as of January 1st my game plan and serious training will start. Coach Edde, you have my word on that!!